This instant invention relates to the methods of off-loading shrimp and other small crustaceans from the holds and storage bins of trawlers and other fishing vessels. At this time at many locations along the gulf coast of the United States and other coastal areas of the world where shrimp, mullet, and other small size sea food catches are off-loaded from the holds and bins of fishing trawlers and other fishing vessels, a slow hand labor process is utilized wherein men with shovels of various configurations load the catch onto portable conveyer belts, or into buckets or nets to be lifted up onto the dock for weighing and processing.
This instant invention seeks to remedy the present costly and slow, semi-manual, labor-intensive, sea food damaging method of off loading small size seafood catches by adapting modern very high volume vacuum technology to vacuuming the catch from the holds or other storage areas of ships and boats into a specially designed vacuum cyclone seafood collection retainer. The vacuumed catch will enter the cyclone retainer at a minimal angle to the inside circular sidewall through a uniquely designed internally smooth vacuum inlet port with no internal ridges or rings in order to minimize damage to the catch in the vacuum process.
Vacuum cyclones have been designed for many purposes but none to date have been designed to off-load small size seafood catches to a dock causing minimal damage to the product in the process.
An example of a specific use of a cyclone is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,311 issued Jan. 14, 2003 to Richard DeGarmo et al. DeGarmo discloses a cyclone, fed wet material by an auger-blower system that separates the wet material into a substantially wet and a substantially solid portion.
A second example is a polycyclonic vacuum collector for non-stop environmental remediation as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,751 issued on Oct. 29, 2002 to Stavros Semanderes et al. Semanderes discloses a vacuum collector comprised of a first and a second drum in series. Vacuum producing motors mounted atop the second drum pull contaminant laden air through the first drum where the majority of contaminants are deposited, thence into the second drum where more contaminants are deposited, and then through HEPA filters and out through the vacuum-producing motors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,875 issued to Paolo Palmas on Dec. 10, 2002, Palmas discloses a single stage of cyclones to separate particulate catalyst from combustion gases to reduce particulate emissions to acceptable levels.
Cyclones can be used to collect and concentrate particles in a specific size range as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,212 issued to Daniel J. Raider et al on Dec. 5, 2000.
Tore Joss discloses the use of cyclones using combined co-current and counter current spins to separate different specific gravities in a liquid in U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,494 issued Oct. 17, 2000.
A domestic vacuum cleaner with multiple cyclones arranged in cascade so as to capture coarser and then finer particles from dust-laden air is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,292 issued Jul. 4, 2000 to Silvano Fumagalli.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,390 issued to Juha Jakkula on Feb. 8, 2000, a multi-port cyclone is disclosed that more efficiently separates solids from gases than single-port cyclones.
A separation apparatus for separating a mixture of materials that behave as a liquid using a cyclone having an inlet switchable into at least two conditions and a plurality of cyclones enclosed in a pressure vessel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,300 issued to
Tore Joss discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,374 issued on Jan. 27, 1998, a method for cyclone separation of oil and water in a cyclone positioned down hole so as to be able to reinject the water into the reservoir.
William Robinson, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,000 issued on Sep. 11, 1990 discloses a hydro cyclone divided into sections. Robinson discloses that previous sectioned cyclones were connected with flanged joints. Robinson describes a method for joining cyclone sections in such a way that the end of one section fits internally into the following section and the sections are held together by at least two eccentric locks of the folding strap type at each joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,364, issued Oct. 31, 1978 to Richard H. Mozley discloses a cyclone assembled from a kit with all components arranged so as to push-fit into each other and held together as an assembly by axial pressure between the centers of the end plates. Said axial pressure being supplied by a single tighten able rod member extending between said end plates.
Other U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,634 issued Jan. 4, 1994 to Erich Kramer and U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,356 issued Nov. 3, 1992 to James Dyson discloses methods of cleaning cyclones.